Coles will test out a 12-item limit on self-service checkouts as the supermarket giant battles self-scanning theft.
The company announced on Thursday that it would trial the limit at a small number of stores.
"We have found customers with small baskets can generally complete their shopping faster by using self-scanning checkouts, where there is always a team member on hand to assist," a Coles spokesman said.
Shoppers with more than 12 items will be directed to traditional belted checkouts.
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Researchers estimate up to one-third of customers deliberately swipe the wrong barcode when putting items through a self-service checkout – or don't swipe at all.
Coles, along with police, has been working hard to crack down on self-service checkout theft.
In October, at a press conference held outside a Coles, NSW Police pledged to charge shoplifters over thefts as small as $2 as part of a crackdown on self-scanning theft.
"No matter how small you think it is, even if it's the avocado and you're saving $2, it's still shoplifting," Detective Superintendent Murray Chapman said at the time.
Just under half of shoplifters caught at Coles stores around the country in 2015 used a self-service checkout, although there had been no increase in the overall rate of shoplifting, the company said.
About one-third of customers regularly steal when using a DIY checkout, an Australian National University review of global surveys found.
ANU criminologist Dr Emmeline Taylor coined the term SWIPERS to describe such people – "seemingly well-intentioned patrons engaging in routine shoplifting".
Dr Taylor's research revealed some shoppers were routinely swiping lighter, more expensive items like cherries and grapes as root vegetables – especially carrots.
They continued to shoplift at self-service checkouts after discovering how easy it was, she said.